Limitless Worlds

Friday, October 23, 2015

Work putters away slowly on Transhuman Sphere (formerly called Transhuman Future), which is my supplement for Mutant Future. I finished my first draft of the intro and character creation chapters, and up next is all about body swapping (called translating in this game), as well as some other fun things like forking.

I do have a question for you readers out there. I haven't decided yet, but how would you feel about short, chapter opening fiction pieces? For example, the chapter on Evolution (the process of digitizing your mind), could open with a prose piece about someone becoming evolved. Likewise, the gear chapter could include a piece about a battle. I wouldn't make them long, maybe a couple of paragraphs/a page each, but I think it could be interesting.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Hey all, once again it's been a while so I thought I'd update you on what I'm working on writing wise.

First thing is I am serving as a pick-up writer and probable editor for the upcoming game, Zweihander. It's a Warhammer Fantasy clone that's been in production for a while, but it's getting super close to being done. Daniel (the main author) has smacked down all the mechanics, and we are now working through a ton of flavor text. My main focus right now is on writing the descriptions for the professions/classes, but up next is describing the different gods and arcane schools, which is very exciting to me.

Next up is a personal project that is combining a few things together. Tentatively called Transhuman Future, it is going to be a supplement for Goblinoid Game's Mutant Future RPG. Originally it started as 'Vaults of the Old Earth', a MF supplement designed mostly to add more character options. Then I got interested in transhumanism and figured out how to blow out the setting into that. I'm also adapting some ideas from Miami 2085 too. In addition to new mechanics, which includes races, classes, skills, augments like cyberware and bioware, mechs and spaceships, it will also include a full transhuman setting and details on body swapping and all that.

The full details of the setting aren't fleshed out, but the main three 'cultures' are going to harken some of my favorite sci-fi tropes. I'm also taking small nods from one of my favorite JRPGs, Shin Megami Tensei.

The Anarch Alliance is taking notes from 70s dark horror sci-fi, as well as hints of psychedelia. Think Alien and the Thing, with claustrophobic interiors and busted fusion reactors. The Anarchs are hedonists and extremists, who love pushing their minds and bodies to the extreme, and they are often looked down upon and discriminated by the other cultures. Takes some cues from the scum and anarchists of Eclipse Phase, as well as bits of 40k, post-Vietnam sensibilities, the video game SOMA, and a general pessimistic hedonism.

The Axiom Federation is pure atompunk of the 60s, ripped straight out of the pages of Twilight Zone and Fallout. The Federation is really the only stable body of government; they are restrictive, exceptionalists, isolationist and war-ready. Just take all the bad parts of the Cold War, throw them in a blender, and serve to taste. Rips from Fallout, Buck Rogers, 1982, McCarthy witchhunts and decadent imperialism.

Finally is the Adapt Consortium, which is a corruption of 80s cyberpunk mixed with the musical/cultural style of vaporwave. Composed of an alliance of gigacorps and independents, the Consortium thinks everything as a price. Hyper neon, chrome, plastic and old Apple II monitors are the style. It's laughable and a parody, but the Consortium has enough muscle that they don't care. Borrows from the Matrix, Neuromancer, Miami Vice, Drive and capitalism gone horribly wrong.

The only thing is I don't want to write a 200 page treatise on the setting, but I also want to make it unique and memorable. I think around 48 pages would be good, but I want to write out all the mechanics first before I dedicate space.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Hey there, long time no talk! I've been busy with various life things, but I just had an idea for a game I like a great deal.

Arcana Rising is a pretty cool OSR-esque urban fantasy game released not too long ago via the now defunct Bedroom Wall Games. A supplement for the game was released as well called Welcome to Neuro City, which was a pretty good attempt at making the game into something akin to Shadowrun.

The only thing missing from that supplement was drones, and I believe I've come up with a simple solution to add them in as a companion, which are mystic animals that a character can be bound to. So I present below the Compiled Companion

Compiled

Given enough time and resources, a neurocaster can bind a spirit into a mechanical construct, often called a drone. The spirit is special though: it is a rare net spirit, one that is a result of the interblending of magic and the NeurOS. A drone can take on a multitude of forms, but most are generally no bigger than a medium size dog. The drone is generally willing to follow orders and remain loyal, but will usually refuse to enter the wilderness or any area without access to the NeurOS. Since the drone is a spirit housed in a mechanical body, the neurocaster must pay 50 Astra a month to maintain it with parts, batteries and oil.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Here is a little thought I had about a potential source of antagonists in Miami 2085, the Five-O. This is in no way final, but I just thought it would be a good idea.

The Five-O

Despite the vastness of the Miami Police Department, they can not always handle every case thrown at them. When dealing with hypercoke gang wars, raiders from Back Westracial struggles between the droids and humans, they may need to bring in the big guns.

Those are the Five-O.

The Five-O has mass produced robotic police officers, put out by Antagonism Solutions Unlimited. They more often than not look like your average policeman, but get closer and you can see the rubbery flesh, the oddly angled jawline, and the cold eyes that are constantly scanning the crowd.

Due to their quick production and need to be mass-produced, their programming is quite lacking. One of the most easily noticeable quirks is their speech patterns; full of tonal fluctuations, stutters, and loops, they sound more like a scratched vinyl or a overheated voice processor than a robot.

Another glitch, but more often played off as a feature, is their primitive emotion matrix. No matter the mood or even, a Five-O always comes off as a cheerful and helpful civil servant. They will calmly request you return to your apartment as they are chasing you down the alley with guns drawn. They also tend to be cold, calculating, and cruel, which is even more disturbing when they constantly wear a shit-eating grin.

Make no mistake, do not take the Five-O lightly. They are often bristling with chrome and munitions all hidden within their bodies, and if you see a few guarding a building or a city street, you know something big is going down.

Five-O are very rarely ordered to arrest anyone; they either deter, threaten, or kill. If you have to fight one, or god forbid multiple, make sure you have a listed next-of-kin.

So yeah, they Five-O are basically Robocop mixed with Max Headroom, which is both hilarious and terrifying to me.

Modern pop culture is entering a very weird point. If you look back over the 20th century, there was a kind of general progression in, if not an upwards fashion at least, of American popular culture.

But I've come to notice lately a backwards slip into the 80s. With proliferation of chillwave, explosive action movies, bright colored clothes (saw a kid with bright-blue acid-washed shorts the other day), and a resurgence in progressive social movements, it's both a return of and criticism of the 80s.

Another strange part of the 80s was the idea of cyberpunk, though the execution was poor and never realized. And in a way, the cyberpunk aesthetic is a little TOO grimy. It's nearly noir, and extremely pessimistic, and only located on certain sub-cultures like early punk and post-mob drug dealers.

So that's where I am thinking about working on a setting I'm calling "Miami 2085". It's not about the 80s that people were experiencing, or the 80s that people wanted, but the pop 80s that happened.

You may notice in the headline I mention 'trash culture', and you probably wonder what that is. Trash culture is my self-coined term that revolves around looking back on the overly saturated, decade defining cultural memes and playing up their ridiculousness. This setting isn't about the Sex Pistols, Reganomics or post-Veitnam rights movements; this setting is about cocaine, white leisure suits, Top Gun, Naked Eyes, Tears for Fears, enormous cellphones, pastel colors and Ferraris. Miami 2085 is just as influenced by American Psycho and Com Truise as it is by Back to the Future and Drive.

This is all just ideas at this point, and I have no idea what system it'd use (or if it'd just be generic), but it has promise, I feel. Check here for more

Thursday, June 11, 2015

I've been thinking a lot about science fantasy lately, and how for me it hits a ton of buttons I enjoy. However, I've yet to find that 'perfect' science fantasy; there are some great games out there like Numenera and Rifts, but none hit my itch.

However, I've thought about a pretty easy solution: hacking Goblinoid Games' Mutant Future to be less post-apocalypse and more to its science fantasy ideals.

Mutant Future's main conceit is that the world was obliterated by warfare or whatever, and a few generations later it has returned to a medieval society. But what happens if this society continues into the future even farther, basing their technology on the Clarke's Third Law nature of MF?

In essence, a post-apocalyptic Eberron that shares a lot of ideals with JRPGs like Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy.

Classes

As I see it in my head, the pre-apocalyptic society didn't reach retro-futuristic atomic era tech, but rather borderline transhumanism tech. The biggest innovations of this era were basically cybertech, nanotech, genetech and everything else.

I would implement classes for MF that would deal with this stuff. The Machinist would not only be able to construct and repair weapons, armor and vehicles, but also be able to create and use cyberware. The Alchemist's doings would result in mutants, near-superhero powers and gene-splicing. The Warlock (name pending) would be able to manipulate ambient nanomachinery and energy to do as they please. Finally, the Survivor (name also pending) would not specifically be a tech specialist, but would be a 'heroic normal' who has a wide variety of skills to survive the dangerous world.

It's basically the classic four classes: the Machinist is kind of a rogue, mostly due to their ability to alter machines and such; the Alchemist is kind of a cleric; the Warlock is kind of a magic-user; and the Survivor is kind of a fighter.

The issue here would be basically how to do the magic. The biggest concern I have is with the Warlock; should their powers just be existing psychic mutations, or should I throw in a basic (perhaps Vancian) magic system? And how does the Alchemist do what he does; personally, I kind of like the idea of having materials to make the mixtures, but what is the mixture list? I think there is merit of looking at Labyrinth Lord and stealing some ideas from there

Races

For races I'd leave them as-is, but I would rebrand the Mutant as something like a 'Deviant'. I'd also add in some 'stabilized' strains for quick play, and maybe even extend the definition to aliens.

I'd also want to normalize some things. For example, being 1000 years after the fall, a lot of prejudices between races would have been reduced. I'd also think the particularly bad mutations have been erased or reduced, especially as the Alchemists became more knowledgable. I may also experiment with transhuman body-swapping, but that's just speculation as of now. I think an easy fix would to reflavor the inheritance rule as being a body swap.

Skills

I plan on doing a very simple skill system, kind of ripping from Numenera or 13th Age. There will be no defined skill list, but probably backgrounds you make up. If you can apply a background to a attribute check, you get a bonus. Easy peasy.

Tech

Though society has advanced, there is still no super reliable way to make guns or anything like that, aside from the creations that Machinists and Alchemists can make. They are basically operating under what could be called 'cookbook science'; they slap together all the bits and pieces, not really knowing all the interactions of what they are doing, and when the finish they having a working gun/serum/etc. That said, I believe gunpowder weapons are a common sight; you will see the occasional laser pistol slapped to an adventurer's side, or a city's guard being equipped with sleek power armor and plasma rifles, but it's rare.

Cities and Wilderness

Cities will not be hunks of scrap metal; they would be gleaming towers of innovation that are maintained by the secretive Machinists, who hoard their knowledge very much like the Machine-Priests of Warhammer 40k. Still, the wilderness in-between is dangerous and is where the dregs of society, 'magic' and unstable tech live.

Expanding the setting will help even more adventuring wise; abandoned space ports, interdimensional research facilities, crashed space vessels and so on. It'd also allow for more enemies besides mutants and robots, bringing in aliens and interdimensional creatures.

Summary

So yes, it's kind of like Numenera, but not. In this setting, society has figured out a lot of basics of the old world, and even some major metropoli exist in a state above the 21st century, tech wise. Still, people are operating on a lot of blind faith and the aforementioned cookbook science.

It's Evangelion (I also want to throw in mechs, I forgot), Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star and more all wrapped up, tight, and easy to play. Honestly, the biggest hurdles for this setting are figuring out how to make classes work for MF, which I've seen many unsuccessful attempts of. I think I may go for three abilities per class, but I also need to screw around with Mutant Future progression rules (which I've always hated).

I also want to have a strong theme; I've mentioned Evangelion, and I think it may be interesting to go a Kabbalistic/Goetic/Mysticism route, though simplified and not very preachy (especially since the ideas can get kind of heady).

Regardless, I think there are some good ideas here and I hope you follow along as I develop them

Sunday, March 22, 2015

I've been helping Blacky the Blackball with this game for a few months. It is a neo-clone of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and it is super awesome. I also did some writing for it: read up the Age of Rebirth and CAPES settings included in the book to see!

This game is really awesome and is probably my current favorite superhero game. Please check it out and give Blacky lots of love and errata suggestions

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Basically, there were
these 21 chaotic gods named the Arcana that got bored of being so
godlike in the ether of nothing, so they created all of reality, called
the Manifest, and the multiverse as well, called the Fabric. They
suffused every living thing with Mana, the energy of the cosmos, thus
bestowing souls upon the recipients. So in this setting, magic is your
soul

The Arcana turned away for, like, six seconds,
only to come back to basically find the Manifest boiling over. Turns
out, the Arcana are way too chaotic to properly hold together reality.

So
they created the Reversed, 21 gods that served as the mirror images to
the Arcana. And that basically fixed everything for at least a while.
Turns out, the Reversed were just as powerful and willful as the Arcana,
just in different ways.

So as a contingency, the
Arcana made the Tarot, enlightened champions pulled from all across the
Manifest and the Fabric, to serve as their watchdogs. They created the
fey-like Cups, the robotic Pentacles, the demonic Wands and the ghostly
Swords. They also chose certain humans as chosen sons, naming them Fools
because of their unwritten destiny.

The world became pretty alright, except eventually the Reversed noticed that the Arcana and their Tarot champions were getting all the recognition. So the Reversed made their own Tarot in secret, calling them the Trump.

One night, hell broke loose as the Trumps were released across the Manifest and the Fabric, striking down the Tarot, their great works, and killing hundreds of thousands (if not millions). Reality descended once again into anarchy, but the Tarot were too weak to do anything except regain strength.

Eventually, though, the Tarot did regain strength. Though small in number, champions have arisen throughout the Manifest who have started to destroy high ranking Trumps and restore civilization to what it once was. Many people herald this time as the beginning of the fabled Age of Rebirth

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Thought I'd do a little more brainstorming regarding the setting, and so I've decided to detail the Gondwana region, which correlates to the deserts of southeast Washington.

Gondwana was supposedly once a hot and humid place, much like the Quon Jungle to the west. Here, the race of reptilian alchemists and scholars known as the Scaled ruled during the Age of Ignis. After having driven out the Formless, promethean creatures of chaos, the Scaled built up their own empire amongst the jungles and marshes, constructing stone citadels and carving their likeness into their buildings.

However, near the end of the Age of Ignis, a massive earthquake struck Olympia, and once the shaking subsided, the Barrier Mountains loomed to the west. Soon the moisture was sucked out of Gondwana, leaving the footlands of the mountains arid at best, with the Dune Sea encroaching from the east.

This only compounded problems for the Scaled, whose bloodlust had resulted in a decades long civil war. This provided a perfect chance for the Fey, the Children of Aqua, the sweep down from the north and break the Scaled, ushering in the Age of Aqua.

But during the current Age of Terra, Gondwana has taken on a much different appearance. To the southeast is the Dune Sea, a vast desert that has all-but-consumed the old Scaled civilization. Plowing across the desert is the city-state of Iram, The City of a Thousand Silks, built onto the back of a giant beetle that has survived since the Age of Terrors. Iram marches throughout Gondwana, offering trade to all they come to.

To the north, the land cools slightly as it approaches the First Forest Range, becoming a land of praries and savannahs. Called the Ivory Plains, it is dotted with minor tribes who did not swear allegiance to Ai. They are a nomadic people who ride strange beasts seen nowhere else.

West lies the Steplands, strange foothills of the Barrier Mountains that are geometric and cubic in shape. Few live here, but many see it as a place of arcane power. In the northeastern Steplands sits the Valley of Bones, a massive graveyard where the skeletons of creatures beyond imagining made their final resting place. In the largest skeleton is built Ai, the City of Ten Tribes, who pride themselves in both their battle prowess and their social progressiveness.

Finally, southwest the Steplands grow up into the Bleeding Mountains, a volcanic area of the Barrier Mountains that is believed to hold an entrance to the underworld. Built in the face of one of these mountains is Agartha, the Bronze Metropolis. Famed for their advanced technology and hardy lifestyle, Agarthans have their eyes on expanding their empire throughout Olympia.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

I was thinking recently how much I love expansive settings in fantasy. I love kitchen sink settings; I like exploring India, Mesoamerica, Germany and so on, allowing characters and locations of all stripes.

However, I hate how large those settings are. They are just too massive; it could literally take in game months to travel to another country, or even real life months. I ain't got time for that. I like condensed settings size wise, but the problem is they generally aren't too diverse.

So I decided to make my own, and instead of a map, I'm using one that exists: the good ol' state of Washington.

"That's dumb," you may say. But to that I say "No!". Washington is the US state with the most varied terrain, the only state in the lower 48 with a rainforest AND its a perfect size for a campaign setting (70k square miles). Characters could walk from west to east in roughly 10 days, but they would pass through mountains, swamps, forests and deserts to do it.

I also have started to become quite fond of Swords and Sorcery, Lost World type settings. I love the forbidden magic, the dark gods, and the epic stories. I'm cribbing from Primeval Thule, where this Washington was real but was destroyed as the glaciers crept in during the last Ice Age.

There are no countries, but 13 city states, each with their own cultural flavor. For example, Agartha is built into primeval, extremely active Mt. Saint Helens, and is based on Greco-Roman and Mesopotamian civilizations. On the other hand, Hyperboria is built high in the Cascades near the Great Glacier, and they are extremely Norse, Scandinavian and Russian influenced.

I'm debating what system to use for this if I run it, but it may either be Blood, Guts and Glory, ACKS, or D&D 5e, or maybe even B&T. If I write this up, which I hope to do, maybe I'll provide mechanics for all those games and more.

Anyway, I'm going to chronicle its creation on here. I'm also gonna go back and work on some of my other "chronicle the setting here" stuff, which I've been slacking on.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Just a quick recap, I said before that I was writing some settings for the upcoming FASERIP game by Blacky the Blackball (the game rules by the way), and I actually made a last minute change.

Originally, one of my settings was going to be a modified cyberpunk setting, and this one still exists. However, the other was going to be post apocalypse, and while I wrote up a brief for it, it felt way too loose and boring for me to want to put in the game.

So I did a heel turn, and decided instead to write something called Age of Rebirth.

I didn't grow up playing things like Baldur's Gate or Wizardry; my exposure to roleplaying games was Final Fantasy, Tales of Symphonia, Golden Sun, Kingdom Hearts and Shin Megami Tensei. It wasn't boots on the ground soldiers plunging into dangerous dungeons; it was acrobatic warriors screaming out the names of their special attacks as they basically waded through gods like an ankle-high stream.

Age of Rebirth is my answer to want to play such a game on the tabletop. A lot of games try to harp on this style (Exalted, Anima, Weapons of the Gods), and while they aren't bad, they kind of get caught up in their own butts. You will notice that some of the setting harps on Exalted, which is intentional, but I feel like I've made it my own.

The setting will feature magical gear called Instruments, the ability to summon otherwordly creatures, a Limit Break-esque Overdrive, and the ability to manipulate ambient Mana.

A setting summary will come soon, but thought I'd start out with just a light teaser!

Thursday, February 26, 2015

So I thought I'd start off this modern occult setting by giving you a broad overview of the setting. It cribs a bunch of ideas from WoD Mage (mostly Awakening), but I feel like I made it my own and is cool/metaphysical enough to stand by itself.

The basic idea is that the universe is sentient, kind of. It's more like the fabric of the universe is all powerful and somewhat knowing, and the term for this power is "Om" (after the 'noise of the universe' of a lot of Eastern religions).

The Om is the entire universe, but it can't really influence anything; it's just there. So the Om created the Councils and the Fundaments.

The Fundaments are inherently 'human' realms, related to the four classical elements. The Fundaments are really the 'make up' of Om, and these Fundaments created humanity. These are the most basic building blocks of reality, with Om representing a kind of 'quintessence'.

The Councils control the more fringe, but still important, aspects of reality. There are three Councils, each ruled by an Arcana. The Arcana are indeed based off the Major Tarot, but the actual Arcana existed before their labels did. Each Council (named The Court, The Forum and The Judge) has three Houses underneath them, each of which is ruled by two more Arcana. Thus, each Council has seven Arcana.

Each House also controls a Realm Beyond, a metaphysical realm where their chosen aspect derives from. Those will come in later when I describe each Council in turn.

So for millions of years, this worked. Then humans gained sentience, and things went to pot really quickly. The Fundaments grew much more powerful than the Arcana, and they became capricious and jealous. They basically fractured off and started an all-out war versus Om and its Fundaments. This war was staged both on the cosmic arena and on Earth. The Arcana released all manner of terrible creatures, fell magic and disasters across the universe.

The Om was losing, so to remedy this, it invested some of its power in both chosen humans and rebellious creatures of the Arcana. These champions became known as Instruments, but there was inevtiable infighting both within the factions and between the humans and the otherworlders (their factions called the Order and the Cabal, respectively)

The Instruments needed humanity for one reason or another, so though they often fought during lulls in Arcana attacks, they would still band together in unlikely teams to stave off these cosmic threats to humanity. What's worse is these attacks came in waves, and many Instrument leaders fear the largest attack ever is just around the corner.

So that's where the game starts. You are a human/monster/mage/whatever, who get together in ragtag groups to fight the Arcana for the good of the Earth and the good of the universe. Ideally, you start off with only knowing that you are fighting creatures from other worlds; as your characters reach higher levels, you learn more about the 'truth' of Om and the Arcana.

I'll be churning out some setting stuff soon for some excellent games. I'll have two settings in Blacky the Blackball's upcoming FASERIP game (I'm also drawing an alternate cover, which rules), and I'm also going to be banging out a modern occult setting using the game Sigil and Shadow, which is still in beta but is based on the same system as Barebones Fantasy and Covert Ops.

All three are very cool and its nice to write/think about this stuff again. I am actually going to chronicle the occult setting here, which should be a good bit of content

Thursday, January 22, 2015

I'm currently working on a Google Doc (private at the moment) laying out the bare changes and mechanics of Blood and Justice: Superheroic Roleplaying Game, so I thought I'd take you as I go along.

For those of you that don't know, Mutants and Masterminds, the game B&J will be based on (Yes, I'm aware of the risque acronym, but I like the title Blood and Justice too much to give it up), uses a point buy system to build your characters. M&M calls them Power Points, but since that term is not OGL, I have renamed them into Justice Points.

You get an amount of JP based on the Power Level of the campaign, which at the standard Level 10 is 150 JP. These points can be spent to increase your attributes, buy skills, feats and powers, and attack and defense bonuses.

I'm changing some stuff around, though. In M&M, improving your saves (Fort, Reflex and Will) was a power, which is very silly to me. Instead, I've made increasing your save bonus part of the core JP purchase.

I've also added the Soak value, which was originally Amazing Save (Defense). Since I plan to use damage dice in B&J, this Soak value is basically a passive defense that will eat up damage inflicted on you. 1 JP will give you two points in Soak, meaning if you spend 8 JP on Soak, you'll have 16 Soak (ignoring the first 16 points of any attack).

Most of the JP costs have remained the same from M&M, but I am currently trying to figure out skills. Instead of the 40 skills in M&M 1e, I am going to use 14 skills from the 3rd edition of M&M (not including the combat skills). This means that less skills do more, so I'm altering the JP cost for 1 point of skill rank to either cost 2 or 3 JP (leaning more towards 3)

Anyway, this will all come out in testing, but it seems fairly solid to me. Next up I'll talk about attributes, which aren't too different

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

So like I said, I am starting some preliminary work on a rules-lite hack of Mutants and Masterminds 1e for Blood & Treasure, and though try as I might, some things in B&T just can't work on the levels that M&M can escalate too.

So what's staying in B&T?

- All of the combat system, including movement, encumbrance and so on
- Status and environmental effects
- Advantage/Disadvantage

And what's not

- Reverting to 3.5 skill ranks
- Reverting to 3.5 saves

And what's new!

- A full adaptation of the HP damage rules from M&M, including Soak rules and better integration of knockback
- Possibly a sample setting
- Hopefully reduced feats as well
- Removal of Amazing Save as a power and being a core component (ala M&M 2e)

I tried hard to keep ranks and saves and rolls as is, but it's not really feasible, especially at higher levels. So really, I'm just standardizing skill rolls, which I don't feel is a large issue

For feats, I'm going to do away with pure skill bonus feats, as the system can already hit high levels without them. I'll also knock out any feats that don't apply by being too specific (like Blind Fight)